Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in Canadian Jurisdictions

Abstract

Climate change poses numerous risks to the health of Canadians. Extreme weather events, poor air quality, and food insecurity in northern regions are likely to increase along with the increasing incidence and range of infectious diseases. In this study we identify and characterize Canadian federal, provincial, territorial and municipal adaptation to these health risks based on publically available information. Federal health adaptation initiatives emphasize capacity building and gathering information to address general health, infectious disease and heat-related risks. Provincial and territorial adaptation is varied. Quebec is a leader in climate change adaptation, having a notably higher number of adaptation initiatives reported, addressing almost all risks posed by climate change in the province, and having implemented various adaptation types. Meanwhile, all other Canadian provinces and territories are in the early stages of health adaptation. Based on publically available information, reported adaptation also varies greatly by municipality. The six sampled Canadian regional health authorities (or equivalent) are not reporting any adaptation initiatives. We also find little relationship between the number of initiatives reported in the six sampled municipalities and their provinces, suggesting that municipalities are adapting (or not adapting) autonomously.

Enabling local public health adaptation to climate change

“…The Canadian province of Quebec and the German Land of Baden-Württemberg were included based on their role as regional-scale leaders in public health adaptation [30,31]. The cities of Montreal (Quebec) and Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg) were included as the largest municipalities in their respective regions, while the cities of Sherbrooke (Quebec) and Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg) were selected for inclusion on the basis of progress on adaptation.…”

“…Selecting regional and local jurisdictions that had made progress on adaptation provides an opportunity to learn from what has and has not worked in two regions that are advanced in their public health adaptation work. For example, Quebec is known for its progressive health, social and climate change policies (and complex relationship with the federal government) [31][32][33]…”

Tracking the progress of climate change adaptation: An Australian case study

“…Some focus on grey literature analyses, for example of National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) submitted to the UNFCCC (Morgan et al 2019), others review publications in the academic literature (Pearce et al 2018), and some explore both (e.g., Ford et al 2013). Analyses have been carried out at the global scale, comparing progress in adaptation between countries (Ford and Berrang-Ford 2016;Lesnikowski et al 2015;Lesnikowski et al 2016) and for individual countries, for example water management in the Netherlands (Kamperman and Biesbroeck 2017), public health in Canada (Austin et al 2015) and among local governments in Australia (Bradley et al 2015;Moloney and McClaren 2018). Ray and Grannis (2015) analysed progress in the implementation of State Climate Change Adaptation Plans in the U.S.…”

Editorial - Climate change and health: a grand challenge and grand opportunity for public health in Canada

“…In Canada, this has included training, information resources, frameworks, general outreach and educa tion, and dissemination of information to decision makers. 9 Importantly, health adap tation is occurring at the local level, rang ing from individual, to household, to community scales.…”